Red Hook is an odd place: it’s close to Manhattan, but somehow impossible to get to. It’s a secret little pocket of Brooklyn, jutting out into the East River, away from its more thoroughly gentrified neighbors. It’s also the only piece of land in New York that directly faces the Statue of Liberty (since the statue is positioned so that she’s always looking back toward France, her place of origin). Which means that if you want to look Lady Liberty square in the eye, you go to Red Hook—a fact which should seem immediately relevant to anyone familiar with Slattery’s previous novel, Spaceman Blues: A Love Song, or Liberation, both of which can be considered complex, quasi-apocalyptic, multilayered love songs to New York City and to the vast expanse of the America beyond.

Although the book’s official release date was a few weeks ago, the news is well timed given that this is the week Liberation is really heading out in style. For starters, there will be a truly rocking release party at Sunny’s Bar in Brooklyn. And next week Brian will be sitting in on the discussion at Freebird Books’ Post-Apocalyptic Book Club (a club that any New York-based reader of this site ought to be keen on). There will be Tor.com representatives at both of these events, so we hope you can join us if you’re in the area.

To let the virtual community in on this celebration, we’re starting this thread to give you a place to talk about either of Brian’s books: either topics that you’d like to debate with your fellow readers or questions you’d like us to get in front of Mr. Slattery so we can capture his responses in text or on tape and report them here. There are even a few questions beneath the cut to kickstart the conversation.

I met Jed Berry at a dinner party Halloween night. He mentioned he had just read, and very much enjoyed, Brian Francis Slattery’s Liberation. (I also thought he said he was reviewing it, but after drinking a “Corpse Reviver” I wouldn’t swear to it.) I may have been a little paranoid but it seemed to me there was a little trepidation in Jed’s voice when he asked what the cover was going to look like. Slattery’s novels defy easy categorization. I’m a big Slattery fan and I know that the cover could have gone very wrong.

In the end, I think we did alright by the book. I tried to describe the Liberation cover to Jed at the party and mentioned that I might get an opportunity to talk about it here. So...